


with a bow

by maddy_does (favefangirl)



Series: carry on countdown 2020 [29]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Secret Santa, the not so mortifying ordeal of being known
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28260225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/favefangirl/pseuds/maddy_does
Summary: When Simon receives the perfect Secret Santa present, he is determined to know who it's from.
Relationships: Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch/Simon Snow
Series: carry on countdown 2020 [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026733
Kudos: 44
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	with a bow

**Author's Note:**

> Carry On Countdown Day 29, Dec 23: Secret Santa/Gift Giving

Simon is useless at English - worse than useless when it comes to Language. He stutters and stumbles over his words, and there seems to be some kind of disconnect between his brain and his mouth because he can never get out what he actually means. He doesn't mind Literature so much, because that's mostly just reading, and he's good at reading. He's good at anything that requires long stretches of time focusing on something without having to interact with other people. He's not sure he's even going to pass Language, though.

Even so, Miss Possibelf, his English teacher, is by far his best teacher. She's ruthless, sometimes bordering on mean, but she's about the only adult in the whole school who Simon believes actually gives a damn about the children in it. She's more machine than man for most of the year, getting through heaps of marking in seemingly no time at all, and acting as a slave driver for coursework and homework, but at Christmas every year, that exterior thaws and the human being inside of her comes through. She goes a bit mad about it, actually, hanging up so much tinsel and holly that you can barely see the walls. There's one corner of the room that doesn't look like Santa threw up all over it, where a Menorah sits for the Jewish twins a couple of years below, but everywhere else is so aggressively festive it almost hurts to look at. This year she even went a step further, erecting a six foot tree by the board and getting the littleuns to make paper baubles to hang on it, each on book themed. It's sweet, really.

Now that they're year 13, this year they get to do Miss Possibelf's annual Secret Santa. Apparently, according to friends Simon has in older years, it's the best part about being in her class at all. She gets really into it, and depending on who gets who, the drama is delicious. Relationships have been made or ruined depending on the year, the people, and the gifts. It's the best kind of carnage.

Simon had gotten Trixie, and spent the two weeks they had to get the presents floundering around without a clue what to get her. They don't know each other that well, especially considering Penny's mostly unearned hatred towards her because on Penny's birthday she'd said she must be emotionally stunted because she's an Aquarius. Simon had spent lunch that day sitting through Penny rant about how star signs were a load of rubbish anyway, even as she defended herself against the stereotype. Anything positive said about Trixie after that was seen as a personal attack.

After googling variants of "what to buy your hippy friend", Simon finally settled on some hand painted tarot cards he found on eBay. Come exchange day, she seemed happy enough with them. Penny rolled her eyes at his pleased grin. She wasn't happy because whoever had gotten her and bought her a hair dye, and apparently not even a good branded one. She was pouting, and pretending not to be pouting.

When it came to Simon's turn to unwrap his, he was confused. It was a thin, rectangle that was deceptively heavy as he picked it up. He ripped into the paper with reckless abandon even as he felt bad about it, given how beautifully it was wrapped. When the opened it, his breath caught in his throat. It was a slightly beat up, hardback copy of A Christmas Carol, as illustrated by Quentin Blake. In awe, he began flicking through the pages, trying not to cry.

When he was a kid, one of the only things he had left from his parents was a copy of this book. He had vague memories of lavender scent, and someone reading this aloud, doing all the voices. It was as much as he remembered about his mum. He looked across the room at Agatha, but she was paying him no attention whatsoever. He was sure it had to be her who'd gotten him this, as he doesn't know who else he'd told the story to of how some older kid had taken it from him, ripping the pages and bending the cardboard until Simon cried.

After the lesson was over, he cornered her by her locker and asked if she'd been the one to give it him. She frowned. "No, I got Keris the candles shaped like a naked woman." She observed the book impassively. "Is someone insulting you, getting you a kid's book?"

He'd walked away without answering her question, a little hurt but not entirely surprised that she didn't remember. In the aftermath of their breakup, it was becoming abundantly clear that their relationship had been little more than show and familiarity. He met Penny in the cafeteria, staring down at the book. He flicked through the pages once more to see if there was a note or name that might explain who it was from, but there was nothing.

"What's so special about this book, anyway?" Penny asked around a mouthful of rubbery pasta.

Simon told her the story, explaining how he'd been so attached to his copy, and he'd never been more upset than the day that it had been destroyed. "I don't think it's a coincidence that someone's given it to me," he finished, pressing a gentle hand to the front cover.

Penny still didn't see what was so important about it, but didn't push him. He got home that night and his foster mum, Ebb, was hanging a picture of a Christmas tree one of his foster siblings had drawn on the fridge. She looked around as he entered the kitchen to grab a snack out of the cupboard and grinned at him even as she struggled to arrange the pictures and magnets in such a way that no one's drawing was hidden.

"Hey Simon, how was school?" She asked, finally done placing the magnets.

"Good," Simon replied around a mouthful of a custard cream. He swallowed and then explained the situation with the Secret Santa. 

"Yeah that does seem really personal." She hummed and tilted her head. "And it's really not from Agatha or Penelope?"

Simon shook his head. "Neither of them got why it was so important. They thought it was just a book."

Ebb stuck her bottom lip out as she thought. "Who else could it be from?" Simon shrugged again, shoving a whole custard cream in his mouth, then wiping the crumbs off on his school trousers. "Are you going to find out?" Ebb asked, going over to the slow cooker to stir the contents, before tasting a spoonful of it. She pulled a face and reached for the salt.

"I don't even know how," Simon admitted, pushing off from where he was leaning against the counter to peer over her shoulder. He saw she was making some kind of soup and grinned, kissing her cheek - she made the best soups.

"Why don't we make a list?" Ebb suggested, stirring the soup again and then trying another mouthful. "Try ruling people out until we figure out who it is."

"Like Guess Who," Isabelle, one of Simon's fosters sisters, suggested as she wheeled herself into the room. "I love Guess Who," she added as she went into the fridge to grab a bottle of Coke. "Can I play?"

"Sure," Ebb said, putting the lid back on the slow cooker. "We'll do it over dinner."

Simon went to change after that, swapping his school uniform for some jogging bottoms and a t-shirt. He worked on some history homework until all the Russian names began blurring together and he couldn't distinguish between Kamenev and Kerensky, then reached for his phone to scroll through his Instagram feed. Everyone from his English class was posting their Secret Santa gifts and make vague comments on each others' posts which all but confirmed that they were the source. He made a mental note of who this discounted as the potential suspects for his gift because he knew that now Isabelle was involved in proceedings, they were going to be taking this _very_ seriously. 

When he was called downstairs for dinner, his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the whiteboard laid out on the table with a list of everyone in Simon's English class on it. Simon didn't know that Isabelle even knew all of these people, but it's her scrawled handwriting on the board so she must've been the one to write it out. He sat down at his usual seat as his foster brothers made their way into the kitchen arguing about some lore behind a game they were playing, whilst Ebb ladled a bowlful of soup for everyone, reminding them that there was more if they were still hungry. Once they were both settled around the table, Isabelle got right down to business.

"Alright, so it's a definite no for Penny and Agatha," she said, spooning soup into her mouth with one hand and crossing off their names with the other.

"I'm pretty sure I can rule out Keris, Dev, Gareth, Niall and Sophie," Simon replied, gesturing to the list with his spoon. "This is great, by the way," He said to Ebb who patted his cheek in response in a way that was half-condescending, half-affection. "Oh, and Asad didn't want to do it."

Isabelle nodded, crossing off names obediently as she continued to spoon soup into her mouth. "That leaves us with... 20 possible candidates."

Simon groaned. "This is impossible!"

"What are we doing?" his brother Harry asked, peering over at Isabelle's whiteboard.

"Trying to figure out who Simon's Secret Santa is," Isabelle replied, turning the whiteboard so he could see it better.

"Jack got Chloe because apparently he stole his sister's make up for it," his other brother, Joshua, supplied. "And Thomas forgot his because his mum had to bring it to him during Choir." Isabelle nodded, making the necessary amendments. Joshua shrugged, "That's all I know."

"Okay, 18 possibilities," Isabelle concluded. 

They began going through the names and consider why or why not they might be the candidate - Jessica would've hand made her gift, Emily likely gave James a bible, and so on. They checked the book and saw that it was an original edition, an was therefore probably more expensive, so that ruled out a handful of people who wouldn't be able to afford it. Halfway through dinner, Simon received a text from Penny revealing that Lauren had given her the hair dye, so that ruled her out as well. Eventually they were left with just four names; Baz, Ryan, Hannah and Joseph.

"It won't be Baz," Simon said, helping himself to a third bowl of soup. "He despises me. If he'd gotten me he would've probably wrapped up a grade four nuclear weapon with a Merry Christmas written on the side." Ebb hummed as as Isabelle crossed off Baz's name, writing _enemy_ next to it as the reason why. "What?" Simon asked Ebb, frowning at her. She just shook her head and failed to conceal a smile. " _What_?"

"Nothing," Ebb said, good naturedly, holding up her hands. "I just think you might be being a bit harsh."

"Harsh?" Simon asked, indignant. "Ebb, Baz tried to get me expelled! He pushed me over in the courtyard then claimed that I was just clumsy. He purposefully ruined my castle structure in year 7. He takes any opportunity to call me names. He _hates_ me." Ebb just raised her eyebrows and went about clearing away her bowl. "You don't think he hates me?" Simon asked, suddenly uncertain.

" _I_ think maybe Baz is tugging on your pigtails in the playground," Ebb explained, leaning against the counter and crossing her arms.

Isabelle frowned. "I thought that that was just mean, and if anyone ever said it was a sign that someone liked you, then you should call them an idiot because we shouldn't normalise abuse?" Isabelle parroted.

"Correct," Ebb agreed, coming behind her and playing with her hair. " _But_ , we must remember Baz was raised by Grimms. He was probably taught not to feel anything rather than how to cope with them in a healthy way,"

Simon frowned into his soup trying to understand what was being said to him. "You think Baz got me the book, and that he likes me." He looked up at Ebb and she just shrugged.

Simon wasn't convinced. He and Baz had been at each other's throats since they were kids. Baz was arrogant and a bully, and Simon wasn't afraid to call him out on that. Baz had basically made it his mission to make Simon's life miserable from then on, and a lot of the time he did a good job of it. There was no way he had feelings for him. Simon wasn't sure that Baz could feel _anything_. Plus, Simon had no idea how Baz would know about the book. The only people he'd told about it were Penny, at a sleepover one time when they were both so far past the point of exhaustion that they were telling each other about their childhoods, and Agatha in the library when she'd gone to take out a copy of the book for a theatre project she was working on.

He wasn't convinced, but he also wasn't _not_ convinced. Ebb was amazing at reading people. Her first perceptions of a person were almost never wrong, so for her to say that there might be something more going on there than just simple hatred, Simon thought it would be a bit careless not to at least consider it. And he did consider it. All night, actually. He barely slept and felt like a zombie the next morning as he stumbled to the kitchen to help Isabelle make breakfast because it was their turn on the rota. Ebb gave him a pointed look, but was good enough not to mention it. 

It was all he could think about through his double history lesson first thing, and he didn't process any of what his teacher said about New Economic Policy or the Kulaks. At break Penny noted how distracted he was, but he barely heard her as he watched Baz strut through the dining room. Without so much as a goodbye to Penny, he stood up and hurried after him. 

He chased him down to his locker and froze in front of him. He had no idea how he was going to address this. He still wasn't sure he was even that convinced that Baz was his Secret Santa, and even less so that he liked him. He had no idea where to even begin with his questions. As he loitered there, seemingly unaware of his presence, Baz opened his locker door to put away a Law textbook. Simon gasped as he noticed the roll of wrapping paper hidden inside the locker. The same wrapping paper as his Secret Santa gift had been wrapped in. He opened his mouth to say - what? He wasn't sure. But before he could his friends from the Athletics club came bounding down the corridor, shouting questions about a track meet up that weekend, and ushering him towards the dining hall despite his protestations. He managed one last look over his shoulder to see Baz close his locker, and look up. Their eyes met, and Simon's widened, while Baz frowned.

He went back to the dining hall with no idea what any of this mean.

**Author's Note:**

> aaaand we're back to hating them! yay!
> 
> anyway, if you wanna leave a comment or a kudos they're much appreciated! especially let me know if there's something you think i forgot to tag! i'm really not sure about the rating?
> 
> i'm taking prompts! if you're interested please drop the prompt in the comments below. if you do send a prompt be prepared for me to take fifty years to fill it because school is so hard (or, i guess, uni now, lol), but i promise i'll try! come say hi on tumblr: [@maddy-does](https://maddy-does.tumblr.com/)
> 
> thanks for reading, have a wonderful existence.


End file.
